April 26, 2009

  • I've never fully liked Hope. It keeps you fighting when you ought to stop. Yet I can't help but believe in life at the moment. Granted, things have gotten better a long while ago, but it's more than that. Take a step out and just hope that you don't fall.

     

    Alright, been a while since I've given a new archaic word. Today, it is "gainsay".

    Gainsay [geyn-sey, geyn-sey]
    -verb (used with object), -said, -say⋅ing

    1. to deny, despute, or contradict
    2. to speak or act against; oppose

    Origin:
    1250-1300

    Related forms:
    gainsayer, noun

     

    From http://www.vancepublications.com/excerpt%20archaic.htm:

    Gainsay is a combination of the Old English gegn, "against" and say. Hence, to gainsay is to speak against, contradict, oppose, or hinder.

     

     

    I must say, mauger my continued offenses, I have not learned to get to bed ere it's too late and, it seems, even gainsay the idea.

     

     

    ...though, to slightly prove the point, I also learned that when the letter þ (thorn) used to be used, they would use it as a means to create abreviations for words such as that, thou, this, and the. For these, they'd they'd made a superscript out of one letter above the letter þ. For an example, this rather stylized picture: ME ye.png. That would be the abreviation for the. As time went on, the letter started to look more like ƿ (wynn) and when printers came from Italy and Germany, since they had y's in their alphabets and not þ's, y started being used in place of þ. So, the abreviation for "the" was done with a Y instead. So...whenever you see a sign that says Ye Olde Shoppe...or etc....they're doing it wrong! The e should be superscript and they're technically using the wrong letter. Thank you.